{"id":246201,"date":"2025-10-28T11:24:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T11:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/246201\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T11:24:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T11:24:27","slug":"paris-masters-star-accused-of-breaking-unwritten-rule-as-row-explodes-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/246201\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Masters star accused of breaking unwritten rule as row explodes | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexander Bublik<\/a> has insisted that he decided not to shake the hand of Alexei Popyrin<\/a> at the Paris Masters because the Australian didn\u2019t apologise when he benefited from two lucky net cords during the match. The Russian-born Kazakhstani tennis star secured his safe passage to the second round after winning the match 6-4, 6-3.<\/p>\n

Bublik<\/a> and Popyrin went head-to-head in the French capital for the first time since their clash at the Madrid Open was briefly halted following a contentious call<\/a> from the umpire. And Bublik hit 31 winners on his way to securing a routine win.<\/p>\n

Bublik found himself 2-0 up in the second set but was facing break points as his rival looked for a way back into the match.<\/p>\n

And Popyrin saw two shots clip the top of the net during the same rally as he broke back.<\/p>\n

The former Canadian Open winner didn\u2019t raise his hand to offer a customary apology for his good fortune, as he opted instead to pump his fist in celebration, breaking an unwritten rule in tennis.<\/p>\n

And when the match ultimately came to an end, Bublik walked straight to the umpire to offer a handshake as he completely ignored his opponent.<\/p>\n

After the match, Bublik was asked whether he had been annoyed by Popyrin\u2019s failure to offer an apology.<\/p>\n

And the 28-year-old explained to Russian outlet Championat<\/a>: \u201cWell, precisely because if someone clips two net cords and doesn’t apologise, but celebrates as if he’s won something…\u201d<\/p>\n

Discussing his refusal to shake Popyrin\u2019s hand, Bublik then added: \u201cI just don’t see anything wrong with that. I think any reasonable person would have done the same in my place, that is, if I had ever done that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can celebrate and then apologise. I’m not one to cling to that, but they apologise for it. There is a code, there is a kind of etiquette. If someone doesn’t comply with it, why should I comply with another?\u201d<\/p>\n

The result means Bublik will face the winner of the match between Corentin Moutet and Reilly Opelka in the next round.<\/p>\n

And commenting on his win against Popyrin, Bublik explained: \u201cI definitely didn\u2019t play my best today. But tennis is not about bringing your best every day, it\u2019s about winning when you\u2019re not feeling well, and especially in a new venue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m quite happy with the win but I\u2019m not really happy with my performance because I was missing quite a bit, my serve was not really working well. But overall, a win is a win, so I get on and I try to be better next time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Bublik has insisted that he decided not to shake the hand of Alexei Popyrin at the Paris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[12374,38872,13832,64,63,146319,100067,143401,85,747,6414,750],"class_list":["post-246201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alexander-bublik","tag-alexei-popyrin","tag-atp-tour","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bublik-popyrin","tag-handshake","tag-paris-masters","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-section","tag-tennis-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}